TOKYO, Dec. 26 (BNA): More than 100 domestic flights were suspended in Japan on Sunday due to heavy snowfall in the northern and western parts of the country, the two largest airlines in Japan said.
ANA Holdings (9202T) has grounded 77 flights as of 1 p.m. (0400 GMT), affecting about 5,100 passengers, Yutaka Kitahara, the airline’s director of operations, told Reuters.
“Since the weather in northeastern Japan is still unstable, there may be more cancellations in the future,” Kitahara said.
A representative from the company’s operations department said Japan Airlines (9201.T) had canceled 35 flights as of 10 a.m. (0100 GMT), affecting 1,810 passengers.
Worldwide, thousands of flights were canceled over the Christmas weekend due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus variant Omicron.
Japan, which has tightened border controls to counter the omicron threat, has reported only about 12 cases of community spread of the new variant and 231 total infections with omicron, including overseas arrivals, according to the health ministry.
FKN